Philippines

There’s about one year to go before its top leadership gets renewed. Yet the European Commission risks missing out on the early harvest it reaped in its free trade agreement negotiations with ASEAN members in the first years of this legislature, writes Iana Dreyer. The EU’s executive is trying …

This week in EU trade was marked by a first substantive round of trade negotiations with Chile, as well as a meeting of the EU Korea trade committee dominated by EU recriminations against Korean beef import restrictions and one of its labour union laws. Otherwise it’s been report and data …

An official delegation from the Philippines visited Brussels this week (25 September), in a move to try and persuade European Union institutions to keep the doors open to its exports. The visit has not put an end to the limbo in which FTA talks were put only a few months …

Sri Lanka regained its lost ‘GSP Plus’ status on Friday (19 May 2017). The country lost the preferential market access status in 2010 following government human right abuses in the context of its crackdown on the Tamil Tiger rebellion. Since 2015, the new government under Ranil Wickremesinghe has fought hard …

The EU Commission is putting free trade talks with the Philippines on halt. In practice, this means it is not setting a new date for a new round of free trade negotiations given concerns over the country’s human rights record. FTA talks with the Philippines were launched in 2016 and are part …

The European Union wants to seize the opportunity that international circumstances are giving it to move up ASEAN’s priority list in international trade. But the EU could be held back by its own foreign policy goals, and the European Parliament, which both insist on democracy promotion and human rights. …

David Martin talks to Hermine Donceel about Scotland after Brexit and EU ASEAN trade relations. Scotland could end up voting to leave the United Kingdom and should be allowed to join EFTA, the MEP reckons. As to EU ASEAN relations, the EU must pay more attention to human rights and …

The EU will examine three countries under its GSP Plus scheme in early December: the Philippines, Pakisan and Sri Lanka. The Philippines have come into the crosshairs of those concerned about recently elected president Duterte’s human rights track record. Duterte’s ordering of extra-judicial killings in a bloody crack-down on drugs-related crime has raised …

The EU has released an official report of the first round of negotiations towards a free trade agreement with the Philippines held last week. Both sides are still quite apart. The EU is clearly putting its FTAs with Singapore (2013) and Vietnam (2015) as benchmarks for the agreement, whereas the …

This week a first round of free trade talks between the EU and the Philippines is being held in Brussels. The government in Manila wants to capitalise on recent economic reforms and its fight against corruption to attract investors to help upgrade the country’s crumbling infrastructure. The Duterte government …